This year’s team is a well-rounded group of hard-working, positive-minded individuals.  Each member is bringing a unique perspective to the farm.  All members are coming from different backgrounds and are skilled in their own ways.  It’s a diverse collection of people but they all share an enthusiasm for sustainable agriculture.  Take a moment to read a short bio of each farmer.

Alex Eaton

It all began in the summer of ’86-With no TV to occupy my young brain, I decided to begin landscaping around the family home.  I convinced my parents to build a small kitchen garden in the back yard.  I even mowed the neighbour’s lawn in trade for old horse manure with which to fertilize my little project.  I continued over the course of several years to plant trees and build stone walls around the house.  My hobby eventually blossomed into a landscaping career with a company in Saint John.  I spent several summers as the gardener on a large estate in Rothesay, and my passion for large-scale landscape management grew.  I spent two years at Acadia University working alongside world-renowned Landscape Architects during the construction of the Harriet Irving Botanical Gardens.  Remaining in the Annapolis Valley for two more years, I pursued another horticultural avenue…growing apples!   I enjoyed every minute of my time in the orchards, from the pruning to the harvest, as well as the packing and shipping during the winter.  When I returned to Hampton in ’03, I found myself landscaping once again.  During the past 8 years my experiences have ranged from the small residential to larger public projects in and around Hampton.   The summer of 2010 brought Dave’s Produce Packs to my attention(the garden is literally two minutes from my front door).  Driving past this remarkable garden every day rekindled joyful memories of growing veggies  as a boy.  So now I find myself excited with the prospect of once again growing real, honest, in-your-backyard food.  Food that tastes like food and not the stuff that is just an image of food that we have all come to believe is food.

Jessica Rydwansky

Every year of my childhood my parents planted a big vegetable garden outside our country home.  It was a normal, daily occurance in the summer for us to walk outside and pick the ingredients for our meals.  I assumed that this was the way every family operated and the beautiful simplicity of it didn’t occur to me until I lived away from the country, away from my parents lush garden.

My interest in gardening really began when I had the oportunity to garden for an elderly lady who owns a bed and breakfast near my childhood home in St.Martins. I felt unbelievably lucky being paid to spend my days tending to the vines and flowers that enveloped her home.  Her gardens inspired me to create my own herb garden on the deck of my tiny summer cottage and I was left itching for a real garden plot of my own.

When I finally lived in the country again and had the oportunity to grow my own vegetable garden I was estatic.  My roomate and I built a fence around our humble mound of soil, fertilized, planted, weeded, and fended off the hoards of slugs desperately trying to eat all our little sprouts.  Things looked bleak for a bit and our green thumbs seemed to be fading but eventually all our hard work picking slugs and weeds and watering paid off.  Our garden was a sucess!  By the end of the summer we had more vegetables than we knew what to do with.

To say the least I am very excited to be working in Farmer Dave’s garden this season.  Not everyone has the time to dedicate to their own, personal garden but having access to fresh, local produce is esential. I can’t wait to get my hands back in the dirt and grow some delicious ingredients for all to enjoy!

Fraser Day 

I’ve always been a fan of fresh food straight out of the garden. I suppose it would have been my grandmothers garden that instilled in me an appreciation for the incomparably rich taste and smell of locally grown, straight out of the dirt, fresh food.

Over the past several years I’ve been busy schooling in Fredericton, planting trees, working in the wind research and development sector and most recently working as a landscaper and self proclaimed stone worker; building stone walls, patios and ponds.

I’m very happy to be a member of the team this summer, it’s giving me an opportunity to be part of the local food network which I have been increasingly more and more passionate about and interested in. I’m beginning to understand and believe in the importance of re-strengthening our local food production and trade networks. I look forward to growing much tasty food this summer to share with you.

Kirstie Clynick

Ever since I can remember I’ve been interested in food. Where it comes from, how to grow it, and how to prepare it; these were all topics that had a hold on me even as a small child. Things didn’t change as I grew older into a young adult and moved on to post-secondary education. Where I graduated from The Culinary Institute of Canada located on Prince Edward Island in 2009. Earning myself a diploma in culinary artistry. Since then I have worked at a handful of exceptional establishments including River’s Edge catering at Riverside golf and country club, and Shadow Lawn Inn in Rothesay. I’ve dappled in all types of cuisine, ranging from greasy pub food to modern haute cuisine.

This fall, I’ve been accepted to Mount St. Vincent University to obtain my degree in Human Nutrition and Dietetics, and continue the love of food from a new angle. Being a healthy lifestyle enthusiast and strict vegetarian paired with my culinary endeavours, I have always had a love for fresh, local produce and fruits. Knowing the impact, sustainability and ethics of growing procedures in agriculture is extremely important to me. In a world faced with highly processed impostors claiming to be real nutrients, and a diabetic pandemic that leaves 1 in 6 Canadians struggling; I think it’s time we got back to our roots . Working on the DPP farm this summer is going to give me a chance to see food on a completely new level, and will gain some perspective and respect for our ancestors who grew honest and wholesome produce to begin with.

Kate

Andrew Davenport

I’m a four-time New Brunswick provincial hollering champion.  There’s nothing I love hollering about more than farming.  When I’m not hollering I’m an archaeology student over at MUN.  I’m going to use my digging skills to find a box of money buried out in the woods someday.  Until then I’m going to work like the dickens bringing you produce.  Stop by the farm sometime and listen to me holler and watch me dig around.  YEEHA

Dave Wolpin

Produce is my passion and these produce packs are my chance to share that passion with people around me.  Please take a look at the guide for this year.  I’m watching excitedly as Dave’s Produce Packs expands and improves with each passing year.  I’m thankful for each customer who shares my feelings for local and sustainable farming.  When I’m not working away on these produce packs I’m over at my store Kredl’s.  Come by sometime.  I love bringing great food to great people.

Click on the image below to read up on the team from the previous two years.  They have moved on to new things but their hard work is still appreciated.